Australian Immigration: Pathway to success

Mr. Susantha Katugampala is a prominent Immigration Lawyer practising in Melbourne Australia. He left Sri Lanka 19 years ago for Australia where he completed his degree at Monash University in Melbourne after which he completed his LLB and practised Law in Adelaide and now in Melbourne. In 1998 he joined and practised Immigration and Commercial Law with the Law firm Knox and Hargrave Lawyers in Adelaide the second oldest law firm in Australia and the oldest Law firm in South Australia established in 1838.

In 2001 Mr. Katugampala moved back to Melbourne and started his own practice with Fairfields Lawyers where he specialised in Immigration Law. The firm comprises of Mr. Katugampala and a team of consulting lawyers and migration agents. The firm provides services in Immigration Law from simple Visa application to a visa cancellation or a Migration Tribunal or Federal Court appeal. Fairfields Lawyers has provided migration services to the clients based in Australia, Sri Lanka and many other parts of the world. Fairfield Lawyers have assisted thousands of clients from Sri Lanka and people of other nationalities over the years.
He now established Australia Gateway a Migration consultancy firm in Colombo of which he is the Director with the intention of assisting Sri Lankans to migrate to Australia. Australia Gateway is located at the Jaic Hilton Towers in Sri Lanka. The Sunday Times spoke to Mr. Katugampala with regards to finding out more information on migrating to Australia.

“We currently have a trend in Sri Lanka where many people are looking into the possibilities of migrating for their personal betterment. It is therefore very important that people receive the right direction and advice with regards to this issue as the possibilities of people being mislead are many. With regards to migration majority of people in Sri Lanka have a limited access to the accurate information. Due to many malpractices and other external factors however the Australian authorities have lost the confidence placed in our Sri Lankan passport. As a Sri Lanka lawyer in Australia, one of my prime objectives is to improve the status of our Sri Lankan passport by educating our people to do the right thing. Due to our genuine commitment for this principle for the last 10 years our law firm has won the confidence of the Australian Government as well as the senior immigration officials in Australia.

While we had the most prominent migration legal practice as a Sri Lankan Lawyer in Melbourne Australia, I was bit hesitant to promote this in Sri Lanka in the full-scale due my love for my country and didn’t want to contribute to the brain drain from our motherland. However, a report issued by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka for the year 2005/2006 stated that one of the highest sources of foreign income is generated through Sri Lankan expatriate remittances. Therefore assisting people to leave the country is a good method of drawing in foreign income to the country as all Sri Lankans do love their home regardless of their residence in the world. Hence, we decided to open an office in Sri Lanka, giving the correct guidance to people and assisting them to migrate through the proper channels”, says Mr. Katugampala.

Australia has abundant migration and employment opportunities for Sri Lankan migrants mainly for professionals such as Accountants, IT professionals, Engineers etc. In the case of most individuals the Sri Lankan qualifications alone will be sufficient enough to gain migration and employment opportunities in Australia as a Sri Lankan Government university degree is equivalent to an Australian degree. Those who hold an Australian overseas qualification needs to have work experience in addition to good English skills and all the applicants for general skill migration must be under 45 years of age.

Those who travel to Australia on a student visa and complete a qualification in Australia have the ability to apply for migration without work experience on completion of their qualification in Australia with 2 years of full-time study.

During the Australian migration process points are awarded to applicants based on their skill factor, age factor, English skills etc. For permanent residence applicants under Independent skill Migration should attain a minimum of 120 points, for those who produce a relative sponsor such as a brother, sister, Aunty, Uncle etc., applicants have the ability to migrate with a lower threshold of 100 points.

“Australia has a State and Federal partnership in terms of immigration process in which the Federal Government is the ultimate decision maker of the visa process but State Governments can choose people that they need by way of offering state sponsorship.

Therefore applicants have the options of migrating Independently under Independent Skilled Migration or with the sponsorship of a relative or the State Government of Australia under Australian Sponsored skilled Migration.

Those who possess the accurate Business or Management skills and Assets have the ability to migrate under business migration and the age limit is 55.

In our practice we have the ability to advice and facilitate any of the above categories. Our office in Sri Lanka offers the best opportunities of migrating to Australia and is the most effective and honest channel to achieving ones Australian migration legal needs. We have Ms. Dulani Guruge and Ms. Anjana Ranwala who are Australian qualified from Deakin University of Melbourne based in Colombo who are Directors of Australia Gateway to assist you while I visit Sri Lanka very frequently to advice my clients. While we like you to tell your success story to others you will be assured that we keep that absolutely confidential. Again, if you need a Lawyer that you need to just talk 24 hours a day 7 days a week, we may be not the right one. But if you want the result or the outcome we can deliver. We like to be result oriented than just talking. We deliver result ”, said Mr. Katugampala.